Growing with God: Rafferty celebrates decennial year with Island Baptist

Aug. 15—While Island Baptist Church celebrated its 150th anniversary in March, last week marked another call for celebration among the congregation.

On Friday, the Rev. Chad Rafferty celebrated 10 years as pastor of the small community church.

While he grew attending Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Owensboro, Rafferty, 47, said accepting the call to ministry wasn't initially in the cards for him when he was thinking about future endeavors while growing up in Sorgho.

After graduating from Apollo High School in 1993, Rafferty attended Western Kentucky University, studying civil engineering technology, and began work at an engineering firm — HRG PLLC Surveying & Engineering — in Owensboro post-graduation in 1997.

It was there that Rafferty started to get called in a different direction.

"I was enjoying that, but then God started working on me ... to move over to ministry," he said.

But it wasn't an immediate shift.

While still working his day job, Rafferty served part-time as the interim youth director at Pleasant Grove Baptist in 2000.

"I just stepped up to kind of fill in and working with the youth and helping out the best I could," he said. "But that lasted almost two years, and during that time, it was God just started kind of laying on my heart (that) this is what I was supposed to be doing."

Even though the feeling was strong, Rafferty was resistant.

"I didn't want to," he said. "I already finished my degree in civil engineering. I was very happy working at the engineering office. I did not want to change. But God would not let loose.

"It took almost two years of fighting Him, but I didn't win that battle."

By 2002, Rafferty "surrendered to the call" and accepted a full-time position as the interim youth minister at Audubon Baptist Church in Henderson, where he stayed until 2004 — the same year he was ordained into the ministry — before serving as the youth minister and associate pastor of Hanover Baptist Church in Hanover, Indiana, until 2012.

He also went back to school. He enrolled at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and received his masters in Christian education in 2005.

"I did all my schooling on Mondays," Rafferty said. "It took two-and-a-half years, but I was able to do it. It wasn't on campus any other time other than the day I graduated ...."

Celebrating 10 years in any job is an accomplishment, especially in a field that typically does not see longevity.

Sources such as Lifeway Research have said that average tenure for a pastor is between four to five years, while recent studies from The Barna Group reported that 38% of pastors in the United States have thought about quitting full-time ministry as of March of this year.

But Rafferty hasn't had that thought.

"I just think with a longer term, you build a little bit more stability not only for your family, but it's stability for the church," Rafferty said. "If the church is constantly having staff change over, it creates a lot of instability. As you establish several years, you get a little bit more credibility, (and) you get to know the people a lot better."

Even with the challenges brought on by the height of the coronavirus pandemic, which Rafferty said was "very stressful," such as not being able to congregate in-person, he still continued to have faith and stay motivated to serve.

"It was a polarized issue that no matter what decision you made, it wasn't always the most popular," he said. "My focus was the safety of the individuals, not only physically, but also I wanted to make sure spiritually that they were being fed; it was that balancing act back and forth. You just keep pushing through and pray for strength ... through those difficult times and difficult decisions ...."

He's also found enjoyment in road cycling, which he picked up just before COVID-19, with a goal of riding 100 miles a week.

"During the heat of (COVID-19), (that) was when I really stepped (it) up," he said. "It was my time of just freedom, just to be able to get away as a stress reliever ... to get away from the phone, other personal distractions, and I had many miles to think and try to figure out exactly how to work through some of this."

Rafferty has grown fond of the close-knit feel of the Island community, saying it's an ideal spot for his wife Robyn and daughters Baylee and Taylor. He looks forward to many more years of serving the people that have become family.

"It was always my goal to try to not just use it as a stepping stone and not something just short term," he said. "The church has been such a blessing. It's been a great, stable (and) solid church (with) great people."